Genealogical news from Spokane, Washington, USA, and the Inland Northwest.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Monday's Miscellaneous Musing

Did you know? According to a book about Butch Cassidy by Larry Pointer, the famous outlaw whose real name was Robert Leroy Parker, might have lived and died in Spokane, Washington, in 1937?? Was William T. Phillips really Butch Cassidy? Pointer's book claims that Butch returned from South America, changed his name to Phillips and came to live in Spokane. Who really knows? (Thanks to Janet Talbot for this bit.)

Did you know there is a Clayton/Deer Park Historical Society which has published a newsletter (the Mortarboard) for years and years? EWGS member Sharon Clark is editor of the newsletter and shared a copy of it with me. Issue #48, April 2012, features the "Saga of the Loon Lake Copper Mine" penned by Peter Coffin. Visit their website: www.cdphs.org for more information on this group; they meet on the second Saturday of each month, 9:00am, at the Clayton Drive-In, located just off Hwy 395 on Railroad Ave.

Did you know that not every living creature has a brain?? The "Ask Marilyn" column in Sunday's Parade Magazine explained that some creatures are.......literally...... brainless. For example, a starfish (now properly called a seastar), a jellyfish, a cockroach and a grasshopper all have no brains as we know them. Weird!

Did you know that the tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan measures Gross National Happiness instead of Gross National Product? Believing that bliss is more important than business, a recent poll found that only 4% of the Bhutanese people described themselves as unhappy while 96% said they were happy, or even better, very happy. What would a similar poll in America show??

Did you know that the "milk of human kindness" may actually be passed on through the genes of nice people, while jerks could be born bereft of that genetic niceness, according to a new study. This study suggests that parental DNA may actually contribute to the kinds of moods and personalities their children inherit. (Read the bit in our Spokesman newspaper on 27 April 2012.) Think I could agree with this.

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